Three great scientific theories of the structure of the universe are the molecular, the corpuscular and the atomic. A fourth affirms, with Haeckel, the condensation or precipitation of matter from ether – whose existence is proved by the condensation or precipitation… A fifth theory is held by idiots, but it is doubtful if they know […]
Atom Quotes
Sometimes I don’t want to see the puppeteers, sometimes I just want to see the magic therein, and sometimes I just want to pry open the atoms and know why they spin.
A weapon of an unparalleled power is being created which will completely change all future conditions of warfare. Unless some agreement about the control of the use of the new active materials can be obtained in due time, any temporary advantage, however great, may be outweighed by a perpetual menace to human security. An initiative, […]
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy.
When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.
Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless, and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new. (written in his diary 25th July 1945, just before he gave the OK for bombing Hiroshima rather than Tokyo or Kyoto)
I am afraid the knockabout comedy of modern atomic physics is not very tender towards our aesthetic ideals. The stately drama of stellar evolution turns out to be more like the hair-breadth escapades in the films. The music of the spheres has a painful suggestion of – jazz.
Dean Acheson took Oppenheimer into the Oval Office and introduced him to Truman. Oppenheimer said, ‘I have blood on my hands.’ Truman claims that he responded to Oppenheimer by saying, ‘Never mind, it will all come out in the wash.’ Then Truman cut short the interview… Acheson was called back into Truman’s presence… Truman shouted […]
Nor do I take into account a danger of starting a chain reaction of a scope great enough to destroy part or all of the planet. But it is not necessary to imagine the earth being destroyed like a nova by a stellar explosion to understand vividly the growing scope of atomic war and to […]
Just how sensitive and on edge the world had become (over the possibility of the Korean War leading to a general war) was demonstrated when the words “atomic bomb” were mentioned at my press conference on November 30 (1951). At the press conference I made the remark that “we will take whatever steps are necessary […]
